Escape wedding welcome dinner?

[notscarlettohara]

I'm doing an Escape wedding Memorial Day weekend next year (just booked, eeee!) and I wanna do a welcome dinner for guests the night before, and I've got a few questions.

We were thinking just reservations at a restaurant, not trying to do something private or anything. I think I saw while googling some older posts that the wedding coordinator can make reservations for large parties? (It'll be at least two weeks before ours gets in contact with us - haven't even signed the contract yet). We're gonna have 19 people at the wedding, but I don't know how many people can make dinner the night before.

I was playing around on Disney's dinner reservations site, checking availabilities for 6 months from now just to see what I might be able to expect, and pretty much nothing was available. So my question is, do I need to worry about that 6 month window for reservations? Is it just that *I* can't make reservations for that many people and our wedding coordinator won't have a problem? Or is it that most restaurants just can't do that many?

If it helps, we want to do dinner somewhere on the Boardwalk (so people can figure out where the ceremony will be the next morning - Sea Breeze Point, and because there are some nearby options for bachelor/bachelorette fun after dinner Probably either the Flying Fish Cafe, Kouzzina, or the Yachtsman Steakhouse. (Anybody have other recommendations?)

Really, the meat of my question is, do I need to order my wedding invitations now, so I can be sure to get RSVPs back by that 180 days out mark, or can I/should I wait until the contract is signed, wedding coordinator contacted, etc?

Related question, but less important: Would dinner count toward the $8,000 minimum for a Saturday Escape wedding? If it doesn't, would a private dinner or dessert party? I reserve the right to change my mind ;-)

 

[bigr3ddog]

Anything that you arrange through dftw would count toward your minimum. I believe if you arrange it yourself, then it doesn't count. Dftw can arrange a 2-hour reception at various spots. I don't think flying fish is one of them, and I believe that yachtsman and kouzzina are, but you should ask. I think the latter two have some private rooms, which is what makes the difference. You can also have a catered private party at the attic or Ariel's.

 

[Chilly]

Only events on your wedding day count towards the minimum as far as I know.

For a large party booking you probably need to ring the group booking line to book rather than making an ADR online.

They normally want you to either eat at 5pm or 9pm.

They will also not guarantee that you will all be sat together. With 19 people they will probably put you on 2 tables next to each other.

You'll need to book at 180 days out.

 

[mmmbop]

We scheduled a breakfast right after our ceremony and it does not count toward any minimum. I told our coordinator about it when we had our initial phone conversation and he told us he'd make the reservation. I ended up making a reservation, and he did as well for a later time. When we talked again, he cancelled his and made sure things were "set up" with the chef at our restaurant.

 

[lurkyloo]

Really, the meat of my question is, do I need to order my wedding invitations now, so I can be sure to get RSVPs back by that 180 days out mark, or can I/should I wait until the contract is signed, wedding coordinator contacted, etc?

I would strongly recommend not ordering invitations until the contract is signed, since so much can change before (and even after) that. Traditionally, wedding invitations aren't sent until 6 weeks before the event, and even destination wedding invites don't usually go out more than about 3 months ahead. Save the Dates are another matter, and these may be a good way to get a feel for who might be planning to attend the wedding.

 

[p2oh]

We had our ceremony at Shades of Green and did a dinner at Big River Grille afterward, they were great to work with and the food was amazing. You book with them directly and they have several pricing options available. Good luck!

 

[notscarlettohara]

even destination wedding invites don't usually go out more than about 3 months ahead. Save the Dates are another matter, and these may be a good way to get a feel for who might be planning to attend the wedding.

Really? 3 months? That seems like short notice for booking flights and hotels and whatnot. ESPECIALLY for heading into peak season at Disney. I guess I could do "Save the Dates", but the invitation I picked out doesn't have matching ones, and it's always seemed a little silly to me. Like sending out two invitations instead of one. And let's face it, if you've gotta put down several hundred dollars on a flight and hotel room, it's not like you're gonna forget it's happening.

But then I don't really like a lot of the traditional wedding things. Part of why I went for a tiny Escape wedding - my best friends and close family won't judge me for doing things my way

 

[WDWLover75]

Really? 3 months? That seems like short notice for booking flights and hotels and whatnot. ESPECIALLY for heading into peak season at Disney. I guess I could do "Save the Dates", but the invitation I picked out doesn't have matching ones, and it's always seemed a little silly to me. Like sending out two invitations instead of one. And let's face it, if you've gotta put down several hundred dollars on a flight and hotel room, it's not like you're gonna forget it's happening.

But then I don't really like a lot of the traditional wedding things. Part of why I went for a tiny Escape wedding - my best friends and close family won't judge me for doing things my way

Hi- I am having an Escape wedding in December. After DF and I decided to have the Escape wedding, we called or talked in person with our "top 18" guests and let them know what we'd decided and the date. I created a wedding website with as much info as I could and did send out Save the Dates, including the website information because people were wanting all the info pretty much immediately (I should mention we have some big-time planners in our circle and a relatively short engagement). The Invite will be more of a formality than anything else but will include additional information such as transportation logistics, a printed copy of the timeline of events, etc. Most of our guests have already made both their flight and hotel reservations, some of started with touring plans already...and I hope to get the invites out this week.

Our Save the Dates and invites don't match, but they do complement each other. The Save the Dates, I made using a kit from Jo-Anns - I think the set was called Pin Dots or something - just plain white with raised dots but I did add black embellishments because I knew our invites would be black and white.

In all the time I spent researching stationery before DF proposed, I had always planned for the Save the Dates to NOT match the invites and other wedding related stationery because I see them as an opportunity to do something fun (if you want).

Also, just as an FYI - you mentioned booking hotel rooms (and this is in Carrie's book) - you can set up a room block for an Escape wedding so our guests (and us) are getting a nice discount on our rooms and since we will have over 25 nights between all our guests, DF and I get a free night.

Good luck and happy planning.

 

[Chilly]

Also, just as an FYI - you mentioned booking hotel rooms (and this is in Carrie's book) - you can set up a room block for an Escape wedding so our guests (and us) are getting a nice discount on our rooms and since we will have over 25 nights between all our guests, DF and I get a free night.

Are you sure about that, the free night is normally only for Wishes weddings.

 

[WDWLover75]

Are you sure about that, the free night is normally only for Wishes weddings.

Yep! Text from my LOA:

If you and your guests book..and pay for at least twenty-five room nights...you will receive one complimentary room night....

 

[Chilly]

Yep! Text from my LOA:

If you and your guests book..and pay for at least twenty-five room nights...you will receive one complimentary room night....

That's great, where will you stay?

 

[WDWLover75]

That's great, where will you stay?

We are just going to stay where we will be the rest of the time - the Boardwalk...I thought about having our free night at the Grand Floridian but we really don't want the hassle of changing rooms. Our pre-wedding, wedding, and honeymoon trip is already going to be long and require us to pack up and move our stuff twice. Plus, half our guests are staying at the Boardwalk so, it will be easier that way to say goodbye to them.

 

[Chilly]

We are just going to stay where we will be the rest of the time - the Boardwalk...I thought about having our free night at the Grand Floridian but we really don't want the hassle of changing rooms. Our pre-wedding, wedding, and honeymoon trip is already going to be long and require us to pack up and move our stuff twice. Plus, half our guests are staying at the Boardwalk so, it will be easier that way to say goodbye to them.

You still might have to pack and move as they don't guarantee that you'll be in the same room and often for your free night they'll upgrade you to concierge.

One option if you don't need that night to extend your stay is to do what we did, we were booked at the Poly and took our free night at the GF on our wedding night but still had our Poly room so didn't have to pack and move, just took a bag for 1 night. It meant we didn't save any money with the free night but made our wedding night extra special.

 

[CurtisB]

We are booking a brunch at Kouzzina immediately following our Escape wedding at Epcot. We were able to reserve the "Coranation Room" at no additional charge. I think they said the room could hold up to 20 people or so but they could squeeze us in with 26 (not all 26 are going to the ceremony).